EXCLUSIVE: This is a still from a 1947 recording of an alien autopsy carried out after the legendary Roswell UFO crash, it was staggeringly claimed.

Express.co.uk published the image after being sent it by Ray Santilli, the British music producer behind a hoax "alien autopsy" video that fooled the world in 1995.

Thousands of alien truth seekers believed Mr Santilli had obtained genuine US military footage of the infamous incident, allegedly involving a crashed UFO and alien bodies, said to have happened outside the New Mexico town in July 1947.

To their disappointment, the film was later exposed as being staged using actors.

The hoax was back in the spotlight last week after Spyros Melaris, who was hired by Mr Santilli and film producer Gary Shoefield to make the black and white film, told the story of his involvement in a one-man West End show.

However, Mr Santilli hit back saying the hoax was a "recreation" of genuine 1947 footage that he obtained before the fake was made, but was of too poor quality to be screened.

He provided Express.co.uk with a grainy still from what he said was the original, in a bid to prove he is telling the truth.

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"At the time we had no knowledge of Roswell or aliens, but he claimed he was the cameraman working for the army airforce and explained the whole alien autopsy story."

Mr Santilli contacted Express.co.uk after we reported on how Mr Melaris revealed in his show how the video was produced inside a north London flat, thousands of miles from the secret US base it was purporting to be in.

After seeing the "1947 still" we published, Mr Melaris hit back at claims the 1995 film was a recreation of some unseen genuine footage, saying “none existed".

He said: “I will also prove that there is no real 1947 footage. There never was. Mr Santilli has called this film a restoration.

“There was never any real film to restore. It isn't even a recreation. It is a work of art.

Both have now agreed to take a lie detector test and Express.co.uk plans to film and publish the results.